Cold Heritage: The Gold Chronicles: Book V
by CJ Moliere
Summary: In their first lives Dorothy Gale and the Tin Man were destined to be bondmates charged with maintaining the balance between darkness and light in the OZ but their bonding would never take place. Five hundred years later they have been reborn as Dorothia "DG" Ozopov and Wyatt Cain. once again their bond is crucial to restoring the Balance between the darkness and light.


Like Nemo and Dreaming of a Knight In Blue, there will be some scenes from The Heart of Everything that will be included but since this is Wyatt and DG's story it goes further back in time before Tin Man, Once Upon a Time and The Wizard of Oz and include scenes that were omitted from The Heart of Everything. This book also includes major spoilers for Books Six and Seven: The Dark Element and At Last, where we learn the full backstories of Persephone Diosa and Lilliana Strogoff.

Storybrooke, Maine

Four days after the Final Eclipse

2011

They stood face to face on the frozen street, she wearing robes of red satin with the symbol of a chalice on the back, he in robes of black satin with the image of an axe on the back. Each carried a sword, his forged from the remains of his previous life, hers from the remains of the prison she'd freed him from in this life. He sneered at her.

"So, you wish to face the dragon's wrath to earn the right to call yourself a master," he said bitterly.

"I demand the right to claim him as my mate!" she declared.

"Then earn it!" he snarled as he raised his sword, their blades clashing in the air. Keeping the memories of watching his duels with Glitch in her mind, she studied every move he made looking for a weakness, but he closed every opening he made, forcing her to retreat each time.

"Still think you have what it takes, kid?" he asked sarcastically.

"I am not a kid!" she yelled.

"You can't avoid acting like one when it counts," he retorted. "Or have you forgotten that?" He kicked out at her and knocked her to the ground, her sword flying out of her hands. As he approached to deliver the death blow, she tripped him. They both jumped to their feet and their swords clashed again. "Looks like you need a few reminders. I bared my goddam heart and soul to you that night at your palace and what did you do...throw them right back in my face because you were too afraid to believe you could actually break my curse and make me human again!"

"And I have never forgiven myself for it!" DG cried.

"Maybe not but you still shared Nicolai's bed."

"And while I did, I wanted it to be you there with me not him!"

"Who ran crying to her mother when she got scared by an old woman? Who disobeyed her parents and went into the woods? Whose little adventures always got her sister in trouble? Yours. Always your mistakes hurt someone else more than they hurt you!"

DG backed away from him, tears streaming down her cheeks. "I was just a kid..." she croaked, repeating the very same words he said to her months ago when she first realized the truth behind Azkadellia's betrayal of the family and the OZ.

"One who should have known better since you were warned often enough!"

"You broke our bond when you were warned not to and you ditched me every chance you got! You're a coward, Wyatt Cain!"

"I lost my wife, my friends and missed seeing my son grow into a man and for what? To protect the very person who caused this whole mess in the first place."

"You go to hell!"

"You first!"

Their blades clashed again. Suddenly she found herself being shoved against the side of Geppetto's shop, the blade of Wyatt's sword pressed against her throat, nothing but hatred in his blue eyes. "I've waited five hundred years for this, bitch," he hissed. "Had you been a woman the first time I never would have needed to come back and live a life far worse than the one I had then."

"It wasn't all bad Wyatt," she said softy. "You had Jeb, you had Adora...and you have me..."

"I had a son who was spawned on me by a dog taking orders from her master and a sniveling little girl who doesn't know how to listen to people who are older and wiser than her."

"If I could go back and change everything, I would but it's too late. What we can do is learn from our mistakes. We won't fail this time. We can't."

"You're the one who made the OZ the hellhole it was with your stupidity and you expect me to forgive you...or even want you?"

"You do want me. You love me. You've always loved me just as I've always loved you. Dammit, I am not going to lose you again!"

"You mean nothing to me!" he yelled back. "Go back to your grave where you belong!"

Oh, you're wrong about that," DG said as she pushed out at Wyatt and forced him to drop his sword "I mean everything to you," she added firmly as she pressed her hand over his heart.

In our hearts heart lies the truth we seek

Heed not the cruel words we hear each other speak

"What the hell are you doing?" he hissed. She focused harder and her hand began to glow as she drew out the light he'd taken from her and merged it with her own dark magic. She took his other hand and pressed it against her own heart, sending some of her light back into him. "Let go of me, you bitch!"

"I'm never letting you go again!" DG vowed.

"Kill her and take your place as my consort!" Almedea demanded. Wyatt's hands were trembling as he raised his sword.

"I'll kill you and he'll take his place as mine as he should have the first time had I not been so foolish!" DG sneered, holding out her own sword.

"There's only one woman I'll ever love and it sure as hell isn't either of you!" He shoved DG and summoned a sarcophagus, trapping her inside it. "Little hard to breathe in there, Princess?"

"NOT AGAIN!" she cried and blasted the marble tomb apart. "Wyatt, dammit, FIGHT HER!"

He threw back his head and screamed in rage, hearing the goddess's voice in his mind, taunting him, tempting him.

She'll just desert you again as she always has. She's always going to be a child in a woman's body.

Not this time.

"Dottie, you know what you have to do." He moved forward, the blade of her sword mere inches from his chest. There wasn't much time. He could feel the darkness taking control again.

"No," she sobbed, backing away.

"She'll never let me go, we both know it. You have to save yourself, save the others. Form the circle without me." He moved closer.

"I can't let you go again…I can't!"

"Our bond was never consummated. You'll be free to bond with someone else. Just…don't give him a rough time, okay?" He smiled faintly.

"There'll never be anyone else for me but you Wyatt Cain." She leaned in.

Kill her and become my consort.

"I've already chosen my consort...and it sure as hell isn't you Alemedia!" Wyatt yelled, impaling himself on DG's sword.

"I love you, Tin Man. In this life…and the next," DG whispered, impaling herself on his sword.

"Deege!" Az buried her face in Archie's shoulder, sobbing brokenly.

"Father!" Jeb moaned into Xenia's shoulder.

"T…The…darkest of curses we've taken…and with our sacrifice in the name…of our love…let…let this curse at last be broken…" the couple recited as they kissed for the last time and fell to the ground in each other's arms, their swords crumbling to dust.


End file.
